A rather fabulous presentation copy of Una, Lady Troubridge’s 1961 memoir of her late lover Radclyffe Hall, inscribed in the year of publication to the Irish author, farmer and professional outdoorswoman Huldine Beamish in true Troubridge style: “from the author & from Radclyffe Hall, who hated the Spanish Corrida beyond anything upon this earth! Rome. Nov:29th:1961. She loathed all cruelty – as you will see by this book – & so do I!”
On publication in 1961 Troubridge sent out affectionately inscribed copies of her memoir of Hall to friends such as Micki Jacob, yet the note to Beamish (1904–1965) suggests they weren’t well acquainted and might be read as a spar of sorts. Beamish, who had published books on dog-training and her former life as a kennel-girl, groom and general factotum on an English estate, lived and farmed with her lover (Helen) Letitia Frazer in Portugal. She had an interest in Portuguese corrida (traditionally fought from horseback): a year after her death in 1965, Beamish’s Cavaliers of Portugal; with a glossary of bullfighting terms was published.
Intriguingly, however, the single annotation to the text suggests that the reader had some sort of insight into Hall’s life with her previous lover Mabel Batten (‘Ladye’): in a paragraph describing Ladye’s dislike of riding and her desire that ‘John’ quit hunting following a serious accident in 1908, our reader underlined the final two words in the following sentence: “In any case, it was quite obvious that two completely divergent ways of life could not be combined and that Ladye’s views would naturally prevail”, and noted beside it: “naturally!” Perhaps, then, Beamish had, instead, known Batten...? A relationship that would have likely vexed Troubridge. [ref: 3663]